Emma Raducanu has pulled out of events in Tokyo and Hong Kong for health reasons to end her season early. But the former US Open winner has agreed to keep working with her Spanish coach Francisco Roig next year. The world No.29 retired from her match against American Ann Li at the Wuhan Open last week in brutal conditions and posted on Instagram: “Last day at the doctor’s in Wuhan. Feeling better now, shame I couldn’t continue there but thank you for the messages.”
Raducanu then struggled again physically during a third consecutive defeat in the first round of the Ningbo Open in a three-set loss to world number 219 Zhu Lin on Tuesday. She also suffered from lower back pain.
Sources in her camp report the British No.1 has been feeling unwell over the last seven to10 days and despite pushing herself to keep going with train and competition, she has decided to focus on recovery and not complete the Asian Swing. The Toray Pan Pacific Open starts in Tokyo on Monday.
The positive news from Raducanu is that Rafa Nadal’s former coach Roig, who joined her team after Wimbledon on a deal till the end of the year, has agreed to extend their working relationship into next season. The two will do a pre-season training block together.
Roig had returned to Barcelona this week so Raducanu was coached in Ningbo by Alexis Canter with Daniel Pohl as her physio and trainer. The rest of her team has yet to be finalised. UK-based French physio Jerome Poupel was also in China with Japanese fitness coach Yutaka Nakamura, who started working with Raducanu at the end of last year, absent for most of this season.
Raducanu is ranked world No.29 after playing 51 matches this season – her most ever – and winning 28. Her best result was reaching the semi-finals in Washington in July where she beat Naomi Osaka.
But she lost to Grand Slam champions – twice to Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka at Wimbledon and Elena Rybakina at the US Open – in the four Grand Slams. And she has played a remarkable 16 matches against Grand Slam finalists this year.
Raducanu, who turns 23 next month, had decided not to represent Great Britain in the Billie Jean King Cup finals in September and took a wildcard into the Korea Open in Seoul in a bid to boost her ranking and get seeded for the Australian Open in January.